Printing arrangements



Sept. 10, 1968 R E. BALDWIN ET AL PRINTING ARRANGEMENTS F'i led Feb. 12, 1968 IUVIMTP A J m? C lm M M A m.

United States Patent ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The invention relates to a printing arrangement which comprises a printing plate having raised symbols on a surface ofv the printing plate, at least two spacer bars on said surface, one at each side of said symbols, the height of said spacer bars being equal to the height of said symbols, an impression roller of uniform thickness throughout its length and arranged to roll along said spacer bars for creating a printed impression of the symbols, at least one pressure sensitive strip between the symbols and the impression roller, the width of the strip being smaller than the distance of the spacer bars from one another, and feeding means arranged for feeding the strip only along the symbols under the exclusion of the spacer bars to prevent a printed impression of the spacer bars.

Cross-reference to. related application Background of the invention The invention relates to printing arrangements for creating printed impressions from printing plates, for example 'from credit cards or other identification cards which carry symbols to be reproduced.

A-credit card has been disclosed in patent specification No. 3,217,643 of J. R. Crissy et al. The credit card bears printable signature indicia and other symbols to be reproduced by printing. The card is provided with three parallel ribs,'the' signature indicia being arranged between two adjacent ribs and the other symbols between the third rib and the rib adjacent to the third rib. The signature indicia and the other symbols are etched and the ribs serve the purpose of reducing the depth to which etching is to take place and still to prevent the etched background areas from imprinting. The ribs may be made ornamental in nature to enhence the general appearance of the card. To effect printing, the card is placed in an impression device as is used, for example, in departmental stores, gasoline service stations, rental agencies and other business establishments offering sales on credit. An imprint is made on a conventional carbon interleaved sales slip or bill,

Various duplicating or printing devices have also become known, which each comprise an impression roller which is guided on rails. Some of such impression rollers have raised collars co-operating with the rails and a num ber of set screws or the like are provided to accurately adjust the distance between the roller and the printing plate.

Summary of the invention It is an object of the present invention to provide a printing arrangement for use with a printing plate having ribs or spacer bars, wherein a reproduction in print of the ribs or spacer bars is avoided, since such reproduction in print even if the ribs or spacer bars were made ornamental is in most cases undesirable.

Furthermore, when printing characters or other symbols which are intended to be sensed by data reading apparatus, it is important that the symbols should be printed clearly and without blurred edges in order to avoid misreading by the apparatus of information conveyed by the symbols. It is another object of the invention to provide a printing arrangement for avoiding or at least decreasing the danger of blurred edges of printed characters or symbols.

The invention consists in the novel features which will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention, reference being had to the accompanying drawings which are given by way of example.

Brief description of the drawing Description of the preferred embodiments The arrangement of FIGS. 1 and 2 comprises a printing plate 1 having a rectangular sheet of phenolic laminate, on which a row of raised symbols 2 are provided between two parallel incompressible spacer bars 3.

The symbols 2 and the bars 3 may be formed by depositing a layer of copper on the plate 1, or causing a copper foil to adhere to the plate '1, coating the copper with a photosensitive material, exposing the photosensitive material to form a resist over the symbols and bars, and etching the remaining area of the copper layer, the resist subsequently being removed Alternatively, the symbols 2 and the bars 3 may be formed by etching a zinc plate.

A pressure sensitive magnetic ink ribbon 4 is guided between the symbols 2 and a paper sheet 5. The ink ribbon 4 is of a width which is smaller than the distance between the bars 3, which are disposed on opposite sides of the ink ribbon 4. A ribbon feeding mechanism comprises a supply spool 6, a take-up spool 7 and a pair of guide rollers 8 and 9. The mechanism preferably feeds the ink ribbon 4 longitudinally after each printing operation in such a manner that the ink ribbon 4 overlies the symbols 3 but is clear of the bars 3.

An impression roller 10 of uniform thickness throughout is rotatably mounted between two arms 11 which are movable in the direction indicated by arrow 12 for rolling the roller 10 over the printing plate 1 to print an impression of the symbols 2 on the paper sheet 5.

The incompressible bars 3 act as spacers along which the roller 10 runs. As the roller 10 travels over each of the symbols 2 the ink ribbon 4 is compressed between the corresponding symbol 2 and the paper sheet 5 to print an impression on the paper.

As indicated in FIG. 2, the height of the symbols 2, which is indicated by a, is equal to that of the bars 3, which is indicated by b. It has been found that satisfactory results are achieved when this height is between 0.003 and 0.004 inch. Since the heights a and b of the symbols 2 and the bars 3 are equal, the roller 9 will be raised by a distance corresponding to the thickness of the compressed ink ribbon 4 between the paper sheet 5 and the symbols 2 as the roller 10 passes over the symbols 2. It will be recognized that, since the height a of the symbols 2 equals the height b of the bars 3 and since the paper sheet 5, which is assumed to be of uniform thickness throughout, overlies both the symbols 2 and the bars 3, the effective printing pressure is dependent on the thickness of the compressed ink ribbon 4 and increases with increasing thickness of the ink ribbon 4. It has been found that even with a thin ink ribbon 4 and a correspondingly low printing pressure a clear and distinct print is obtainable. Owing to the low printing pressure the symbols suffer only very slight wear.

Moreover, the provision of the bars 3 considerably facilitates the attainment of a good print quality for another reason: Without the bars 3 there would be a tendency for the roller to drop back towards the surface of the plate 1 when the roller 10 is not passing over one of the symbols 2, and to climb away from this surface, when the roller 10 reaches the edge of a succeeding symbol 2 or of the first one of the symbols 2. This would result in excessive load variations on the roller 10 and in smudged printing owing to wear of the edges of the symbols 2 and to inking of blank spaces between the symbols 2. However, the provision of the bars 3 effectively reduces such roller load variation, smudging, wear of the symbol edges and inking of blank spaces.

The printing plate '1 of FIG. 1 has a single row of raised symbols 2, which are shaped to print machinereadable characters, and which are disposed between two spacer bars 3. In FIG. 3, a roller printing arrangement is illustrated for simultaneously printing a row of machine-readable characters and a row of visually readable characters.

In the arrangement of FIG. 3, a printing plate 21 is provided with a row of raised symbols 22, corresponding to the symbols 2 of FIG. 1, for printing machine-readable characters, and three parallel incompressible spacer bars 23, instead of the two bars 3 of FIG. 1. A magnetic ink ribbon 24 is fed along a path between a paper sheet 25 and the raised symbols 22 by means of a ribbon feeding mechanism comprising a supply spool 26, a take-up spool 27 and guide rollers 28 and 29 arranged at regions beyond two opposite ends of the printing plate. An impression roller 30 of uniform thickness throughout is rotatably mounted between two arms 31 which are movable in the direction indicated by the arrow 32 for rolling the roller 30 over the printing plate 21.

The raised symbols 22 are arranged between the middle bar 23 and one of the outer bars 23, and a row of raised symbols 33, which are shaped to print visually readable characters, are provided on the printing plate 21 between the middle bar 23 and the other outer bar 23. A further ink ribbon 34 is guided between the paper sheet 25 and the raised symbols 33 by means of a further ink ribbon feed mechanism comprising a supply spool 36, a take-up spool 37 and guide rollers 38 and 39. It will be not-ed that the width of each of the ink ribbons 24, 34 is smaller than the distance between the respective pairs of bars 23, so that the ribbon 24 overlies only the symbols 22 and the ribbon 34 overlies only the symbols 33, but that both ribbons 24, 34 are clear of the bars 23.

After each print has been made by rolling the impression roller 30 along the printing plate 21, the ink ribbon 24 is fed longitudinally by an amount equal to at least the length of the row of raised symbols 22, since for printing machine-readable characters it is desirable to use a fresh length of ink ribbon for each print. The ink ribbon 34, however, which is required only for printing visually readable characters, which need not be as clearly defined as machine-readable characters, may be fed forward a shorter distance after each print.

The provision of two separate ink ribbons 24 and 34 for the two rows of raised symbols 22 and 33 helps to equalize roller pressure on the ribbons and the three-point contact of the impression roller 30 with the three bars 23 will tend to straighten out the printing plate 21 if the printing plate 21 is bowed. Moreover, if the printing plate 21 istilted so that the impression roller 30 exerts unequal pressures on the bars 23, this inequality of pressures will tend to correct the tilting of the printing plate 21. However, the main advantage of providing a plurality of inking ribbons none of which overlies a spacer bar resides in the fact that none of the spacer bars 23 creates an imprint of any bar. Therefore, the reproduction in print of the symbols on the printing plate is clear and does not show any reproduction of the spacer bars, which thus do not need any ornamental embellishment.

In the arrangements of FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 the spacer bars preferably are made of the same material as the symbols.

It should be clearly understood that the embodiments described and illustrated are given by way of example and that modifications, omissions and additions are possible without departing from the spirit of the invention.

We claim:

1. A printing arrangement comprising, in combination, a printing plate, raised symbols on a surface of said printing plate, at least two incompressible parallel spacer bars on said surface, the height of said symbols being equal to the height of said spacer bars, at least some of said symbols being arranged between said spacer bars, an impression roller of uniform thickness along its entire length, said roller being rotatable about its axis, means for rolling said roller along said spacer bars, at least one pressure sensitive strip for creating, during printing, marks corresponding to said symbols, the width of said strip being less than the distance between said bars, and means for guiding said strip in a path overlying said symbols between said spacer bars but being clear of said spacer bars.

2. A printing arrangement as defined in claim 1, wherein said symbols are arranged in a single row, only two spacer bars being provided, said row of symbols lying between said two spacer bars, a single pressure sensitive strip being provided which overlies said single row but is clear of said two spacer bars.

3. A printing arrangement as defined in claim 1, Wherein said symbols are arranged in a plurality of rows, more than two spacer bars being provided, each of said rows of symbols lying between two adjacent spacer bars, a plurality of separate pressure sensitive strips being provided each strip for one of said plurality of rows, each strip being guided by said guiding means in a path overlying one of said rows of symbols but being clear of the pair of spacer bars immediately adjacent said one row.

4. An arrangement as defined in claim 1, wherein the height of said symbols and said spacer bars is between 0.003 and 0.004 inch.

5. An arrangement as defined in claim 1, wherein said symbols and said spacer bars are of copper.

6. An arrangement as defined in claim 1, wherein said symbols and said spacer bars are of zinc.

7. An arrangement as defined in claim 1, wherein said strip guiding means comprise a strip-supply spool, a takeup spool, and guide rollers arranged at regions beyond two opposite ends of said printing plate.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,132,623 3/1915 Schutz 101-336 X 3,010,392 11/1961 Hill 101336 X 3,217,643 11/1965 Crissy et al. 101395 ROBERT E. PULFREY, Primary Examiner.

F. A. WINANS, Assistant Examiner. 

